The War Without End – Episode 1.16

Ebon, Graffan, Korbin and Massingleigh go to Carceri to secure Shilaze’s release, having found sufficient proof that there was outside interference in her trial. The remainder of the Med-Jai congregate in the dinning room and welcome Elsabeth back from her ordeal.

Once everyone has been brought up to speed regarding recent events, Elsabeth asks for help returning a stolen relic, the Cup of the Blessed Sun, to the Church of Pelor. She has volunteered to do this in order to show her gratitude for the Church’s part in restoring her to life. Firstly however, the cup has to be retrieved from the clutches of a maleficent Green Dragon, named Leannapazrak, who dwells with Kobolds in the Lexploor Forest in the Outlands.

Elsabeth informs those present that within the forest there also lives a spider-creature called Legagog who has a reputation for deciphering languages. Elsabeth believes that Legagog could interpret the Yugoloth code that has been discovered. Delwar questions the wisdom of this plan however, warning them that Legagog is both powerful and a servant of the evil god Vecna. The creature is not to be trusted and a meeting will potentially place them in grave danger. But Elsabeth is not to be dissuaded.

When Baratus reveals that he also has business in the region, with the Fensdreg tribe of Ogres and Trolls, the group decide they will all travel there together.

The next day Elsabeth, Kai, Baratus, Growler, Shredda and Sa’ara pass through a portal to the Outlands. They emerge on the summit of a low hill, amidst a small copse of trees. Before them, through the drizzle, are the dark pines of Lexploor Forest.

It is Growler who leads the group down the slope and into the forest. He finds a trail and they follow it, carefully wending their way between the trees. As they go deeper the large conifers close in about them forebodingly.

After they have been walking for a few hours Baratus senses that something is amiss and brings them to a halt. He bends down and touches a wet patch on the forest floor. When he lifts his hand, his fingertips are red and sticky with blood.

Without warning, trailing vines suddenly lash out from a nearby tree and coil around him. He struggles, but the woody tendrils constrict ever tighter.

Kai starts tearing at the creepers in an effort to get Baratus loose, but they are too tightly fastened and will not break. Some have burrowed their way into gaps in Baratus’s armour and others have begun attaching themselves to his skin. Ominously, as Growler and Sa’ara join the efforts to free Baratus, the vines also begin coiling around Kai. In moments, both he and Baratus are hopelessly entangled.

It soon becomes apparent that the two are slowly being drawn towards a twisted misshapen trunk that lurks amidst the other trees. Near its base, the bark opens and closes in a grotesque parody of a mouth.

With the foul vines burrowing into his flesh, Baratus begins to look quite ill and a vile sap-like substance starts seeping from his wounds. Though she herself is in danger of becoming ensnared, Sa’ara desperately continues hacking her way through the creepers that bind him, trying to cut him loose.

Then Elsabeth unleashes her magic. First one lightning-bolt hits the tree, and then a second. It shudders and some of its branches catch fire. Simultaneously, Sa’ara and Growler manage to sever the remaining vines around Baratus and pull him out.

With fire spreading through its upper branches, the tree creature starts to flail around. Kai is dangerously close to the gaping tree-mouth, so Sa’ara struggles forward through the vines to stop him from being eaten. Growler, meanwhile, opts for a more direct approach and starts hacking at the tree trunk itself.

A burst of Magic Missiles from Elsabeth finally finishes it and with an unearthly wail the tree topples backward. Its tendrils shrivel and die.

Kai has managed to withstand the burrowing vines but Baratus looks rather pale. The foul sap has infected him in some way, though he believes he will recover after a while.

Warily they head onward. No more denizens of the forest trouble them for some time.

After a few more hours of wandering Sa’ara confronts Growler with the fact that he is lost. On the contrary he replies, he knows exactly where they are, he just doesn’t know where they are going. He points out that, it was Elsabeth’s idea to come to the forest in search of Legagog and Leeannapazrak. Elsabeth shrugs and confesses that, although she is certain that both of these creatures live somewhere in the forest, she has no idea where they are going either.

As they are discussing it they hear something moving towards them down the trail.

“Oo’s dat?” the something grunts.

Hurriedly the Med-Jai scatter into the trees.

Moments later a large humanoid comes into view. It appears to be a cross between an Ogre and a Troll.

“Iz dat Brat-Arse?” it bellows crashing into the undergrowth.

A loud commotion ensues, as the Ogre-Troll and Growler, who has transformed himself into a bear, have an altercation amongst the trees. When Sa’ara arrives on the scene, the Ogre-Troll is down and seems badly injured. Instead of killing it she tries to speak with it, but that turns out to be a bad idea. Without warning the creature turns on her and, though she slashes it with her blades it grabs her and lifts her off the ground.

“Wer iz Brat-Arse?” it demands, shaking Sa’ara violently and then throwing her into the trees. With a loud thud her body hits a trunk and crashes to the ground.

Kai leaps into the fray and hits the Ogre-Troll with a flurry of punches and kicks before Elsabeth finishes it with a Scorching Ray. Its carcass is left smouldering in the dirt.

“That’s a shame”, comments Elsa “It might have been useful to talk with it.”

Baratus helps Sa’ara to her feet and then heals her wounds.

“So how come they’re after you?” Sa’ara asks the cleric, touching her side gingerly and wincing.

Baratus explains that the magical item he is using to heal her was crafted from a Troll’s thighbone. The Troll, a wicked creature, responsible for many evil things, was killed by a cleric who then took the thighbone in order to make something good out of it. He had hoped that, in some small way, it would be recompense for the evil things the Troll had done. However, due to the Troll’s potent regenerative powers it had recovered from the apparently fatal wounds and had ultimately returned seeking vengeance. It killed the cleric, and then Baratus had killed it, this time for good. Now it appeared that the Troll’s father was out for blood… or the thighbone… or both.

As Baratus finishes his tale, they are startled by a huge spider descending from the branches of a nearby tree. It slowly creeps forward.

“We have come to speak with Legagog”, Elsabeth hurriedly announces.

The spider turns towards her. For a few moments they have the distinct impression that it is toying with the idea of eating her, but then it thinks better of it and scuttles off down the trail. When it has gone a short way it stops and waits for them to follow.

The spider leads them through the forest. After a while they pass into an area that is draped in cobwebs. Spiders of all shapes and sizes, some of them gigantic, lurk and scuttle amongst the trees and branches. Their guide leads them onward.

As sunset approaches, they come to the mouth of a cave, where a beautiful Elven woman greets them and introduces herself as Legagog’s daughter. She has a strange, almost alien quality about her. She takes them inside and down a long tunnel that leads to a large room almost entirely filled with heavily laden bookcases. Behind the bookcases, in the shadows, something large and spidery begins to move. Before they get a clear view of it, the dark shape shimmers and transforms itself into an old man. The man introduces himself as Legagog. There is the same strange, alien quality about him as there is with his daughter.

Legagog asks Elsabeth for the documents and she hands them over. He looks at them intently for a few minutes before declaring, “This will take me at least a day. Please, you must stay as my guests. I insist. My daughter will show you to some rooms”

The Med-Jai seem to have little choice in the matter, so they accept Legagog’s hospitality.

Expecting treachery, they remain ever vigilant, but the night passes uneventfully.

They are left to wait in their rooms for many hours. The next morning drags slowly by. Occasionally large spiders scuttle past. It is an effective deterrent. No one strays outside.

Eventually Legagog’s daughter comes to escort them back to the large room with all the books. Once there, Legagog tells them that he has successfully deciphered the documents.

Two of the sheets are a pair. Together they give details of the location of a Book of Derelict Magics, a kind of Yugoloth bible that holds secrets such as the story of their creation. The translated documents make reference to pages from an unknown tome however, and the key to the code cannot be completed without first identifying that book.

The third document records an arrangement between an individual named Quoi Nhung and an unnamed other. It is a kind of contract. According to what is written Quoi Nhung agrees to possess someone called Tanemous and take steps to instigate a trial.

That is all.

“So our business is concluded, is it not?” Legagog asks.

“Yes”

“Then I think it would be wise if you left”, he says.

As Legagog speaks, his daughter’s arms start to transform into long spidery legs and sounds of scuttling can be heard from the dark tunnels all around.

The Med-Jai back away.

Suddenly large spiders begin crawling out of crevices in the rock above. At first there are only a few of them, but more and more emerge until the ceiling is almost covered. The arachnids swarm across the roof and down the walls. Seeing this the Med-Jai start to run down the tunnel toward the exit.

Shredda and Growler take the lead. The Velociraptor ferociously barrels its way forward, clawing, rending and tearing its way through the spiders that scuttle out of side-passages to block their path. While Growler summons the elemental forces of nature and repeatedly calls down lightning upon the arachnids.

Behind them, Elsabeth keeps to the middle of the group, making timely interventions with her magic missiles. Baratus is also there but, with little firepower at his disposal, he elects to use his divine magic to turn himself invisible and remains out of sight.

At the rear, Sa’ara and Kai battle desperately to hold back the hundreds of spiders that swarm up along the tunnel behind. Dozens of them leap from the walls or scuttle toward them across the floor, only to be hurled back, either cut in two or with limbs severed.

At first, Shredda and Growler smash their way through, clearing a path for the others, but gradually, as more and more arachnids enter the corridor, they start to get bogged down. At the rear of the group, it becomes increasingly difficult for Kai and Sa’ara to fend off the pursuing swarm.

Realizing that they have to keep moving, Kai risks leaving Sa’ara and goes to help clear the way forward. He leaps acrobatically into the fray, his spiked-chain a destructive whirlwind about him. Between them, Kai, Shredda and Growler slaughter arachnids on all sides and the momentum is regained.

Without Kai to help her however, Sa’ara is overrun at the rear. She stumbles as a spider bites into her thigh, quickly regaining her footing and slicing its legs out from under it, but the arachnids break through. One of them bites Elsabeth and the sorceress collapses from its venom.

Seeing the danger, Growler transforms into his bear-form and goes back to help. He and Sa’ara hold the spiders long enough for Baratus to reappear and get Elsabeth back on her feet. The sorceress looks a little shaky but determinedly calls upon her magic to send a lightning bolt down the corridor and fry the last of the spiders from their path.

With the way forward finally clear, the group makes a dash for the exit. Baratus helps Elsabeth, while Sa’ara and Growler valiantly act as rearguard.

They are nearly out when the swarm surges forward once more, and it seems for a moment that Sa’ara is cut off. She is fighting like a wildcat with spiders all around. But then she leaps acrobatically into the air and somersaults away, escaping just in time.

Then Baratus uses his magic to create a wall of ice across the corridor behind them. It will hold the spiders for a short while.

They finally reach the exit, but their relief is short-lived. Outside the cave mouth, a vast multitude of spiders are waiting for them. At least a half-dozen of them are colossal, much bigger than any they have faced to this point.

To be continued…

Notes:

First appearance of Legagog the Knowing (John Hurt)

Not long after the Med-Jai entered Legagog’s lair Elsabeth sensed that there were magic wardings in place to prevent dimensional travel from there. That is why they didn’t use magic to get out.